Ms. Readers’ 100 Best Non-Fiction Books of All Time: The Top 10 and the Complete List!

Scholar, activist, provocateur, teacher, community-builder, inspiration: No one word can span the career of bell hooks or capture how much we love her work. According to Ms. readers’ selections of the best feminist non-fiction of all time, she’s your favorite writer, with three books in our top ten–including number one–and a total of seven books throughout the list. To judge by the final picks, issues of work, sex and intersectionality ranked highest among our reader’s feminist concerns.

Below the top ten, we’ve included a handy list of all 100. These rankings came from two-and-a-half weeks of reader voting on Goodreads, the Ms. Blog and Facebook (see bottom for more methodological details). Eager to hear your thoughts, disputes and favorites!

10. The Purity Myth: How America’s Obsession with Virginity is Hurting Young Womenby Jessica Valenti
Seal Press, 2009
Jessica Valenti combats a nation’s virginity complex, arguing that myths about “purity” are damaging to both girls and women. She points the way forward toward a world where women are perceived as more than vessels of chastity. Find it here.

9. Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center
by bell hooks
South End Press, 1985
Cementing her place as one of the most influential feminist theorists, hooks’ Feminist Theory explores Kimberle Crenshaw’s conversation-changing idea of intersectionality: the way racism, classism and sexism work together to foster oppression. Find it here.

8. Ain’t I a Woman: Black Women and Feminismby bell hooks
South End Press, 1999
Named after the famous speech by Sojourner Truth, this must-read by bell hooks discusses black women’s struggle with U.S. racism and sexism since the time of slavery and doesn’t shirk from how white middle- and upper-class feminists have at times failed poor and non-white women. Find it here.

7. Female Chauvinist Pigs: Women and the Rise of Raunch Culture
by Ariel Levy
Free Press, 2005
What do phenomena such as Girls Gone Wild say about feminism? This book looks at the ways women today make sex objects of themselves, and she’s not impressed. She chews out false “empowerment” based on self-objectification and offers feminist alternatives. Find it here.

6. Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women
by Susan Faludi
Crown, 1991
This landmark book sounded the alarm about a pervasive backlash against feminism. She painstakingly refutes each insidious anti-feminist argument–for instance, that feminism is responsible for a supposed epidemic of unhappiness in women. What’s really wrong, she says, is that equality hasn’t been achieved; in fact, the struggle has only just begun. Find it here.

5. Nickel and Dimed
by Barbara Ehrenreich
Metropolitan Books, 2001
Long-time Ms. columnist Barbara Ehrenreich posed undercover as a low-income worker to gain material for this empathetic portrait of how the bottom half lives. She reveals that simply making ends meet is a silent struggle for many Americans, especially for women with families to support. Find it here.

4. A Room of One’s Ownby Virginia Woolf
Harcourt Brace, 1929This classic from the 1920s makes a devastatingly eloquent argument with a simple takeaway: For a women artist to thrive, she must have space in which to work and some money for her efforts. Find it here.

3. Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches
by Audre Lorde
Crossing Press, 1984
This master work by Audre Lorde, a Caribbean American lesbian feminist writer, collects her prose from the late 70s and early 80s. Many of these pieces made feminist history, including her candid dialogue with Adrienne Rich about race and feminism, her oft-quoted critique of academia “The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House” and her Open Letter to Mary Daly. Find it here.

2. Cunt: A Declaration of Independence
by Inga Muscio
Seal Press 2002
Inga Muscio’s 2002 feminist manifesto radicalized a new generation. She argues for the reclaiming of the tarnished word cunt, and discusses her personal experiences with self-protection, sex work, abortion and solidarity. Find it here.

1. Feminism is For Everybody: Passionate Politics
by bell hooks
South End Press, 2000
Fittingly, in Ms. readers’ favorite feminist book of all time, bell hooks argues that feminism is for everybody, regardless of race, gender or creed. She urges all to live a feminism that finds commonality across differences and makes room for impassioned debate. Find it here.

Here are the rest of our readers’ picks! Click on the links to each ten for more detailed descriptions.

How we did it (our pseudo-scientific methodology): After calling for nominations on September 9, 2011, we counted all reader picks that appeared on the Ms. Blog, Ms. Facebook page or Goodreads list before noon on September 25, 2011. To break ties, we went first by whether books got votes on multiple platforms, then by Goodreads rank. (Don’t be fooled by the current order of the Goodreads list–thanks to all the other votes, the final list differs significantly.)

Comments

The one book I really miss on this list (in addition to my bio of Laura Nyro, of course ;);)), is \”Toward a Recognition of Androgyny\” by Carolyn Heilbrun. The other book that also really influenced my thinking back in the feminist day was \”Women and Madness\” by Phyllis Chesler.

Andrea Dworkin’s erasure from such a list is devastating and telling. Seriously. This compilation shouldn’t be like a vote on American Idol. “Cunt” should be nowhere near number two. And there are books that aren’t even feminist, but more gender-queer, which at times, is anti-feminist. Ms. should take the oppoortunity to, rather than gather votes from Facebook, compile a list on its own. You’re historic in your legacy, why not take the authority? So, so disappointing.

I certainly wouldn’t consider Mary Piper’s book feminist. A better title would have been “How to bully your daughter and pat yourself on the back for doing it.” Meanwhile Paula Kamen’s “Feminist Fatale” is omited? Am I jumping to conclusions, or is there an anti-youth bias to this list?

That is such a great point, Tara! I suppose I missed out on the vote somehow, but what I would love would be to hear a list of texts chosen by those who founded and continue to build on the legacy of Ms. Magazine. I am also devastated that Dworkin has been excluded. She has been one of, if not the, most foundational authors, for myself and for many other women I know (young and old), in terms of building a real feminist movement. She has inspired generations of women to fight for humanity and continues to do so.

Agreed, Meghan. The demographic made up by Facebook excludes a huge group of women: women without computers or internet access, women without free time for social networking, older women who have no idea what the facebook is . . . So, a list from the women who are at the core of Ms. would be remarkable. Although, it’s still asking a lot to have Andrea’s work included by mainstream feminists, unfortunately. I agree that her work helped shape me in so many ways. I miss feminism that comes from a deep down in the gut place. Somewhere along the line, we got comfortable and we became way too academic. The message of feminism to me is clear: women are targeted just becasue they are women by the group that is predominantly made up of men and this warfare is sanctioned by the social structure that is patriarchy. And it’s fucking wrong and we need to do all we can to make it stop.

Checked out the list, proud to have read a good handful of the books mentioned, but figure I’ll make it my two or three year goal to read the rest. Then I read your comments below and I’m with you all, I’d like to see a thought out, non-vote style, list. Anyone gonna put one together?

One book that I would have liked to see on a list like this is “Enlightened Sexism: the seductive message that feminism’s work is done” by Susan J. Douglas. I’d highly recommend it, especially as a sort of beginner’s book (like, for new feminists and stuff)! Otherwise, I’m really looking forward to reading some of these, especially some of the ones that I hadn’t heard of before! And The Sexual Politics of Meat.

I personally prefer the voting method…I think that a list that had the opportunity to be informed by a huge variety of women from drastically differing feminist perspectives is much more representative of what has been most meaningful and influential to the feminist community as a whole (well, the feminist community that reads Ms., anyway) than a list compiled exclusively by those who have been and are involved with Ms….after all, it’d be great if Ms. could produce an unbiased, definitive list of great feminist works, but unfortunately, Ms., is a magazine (and a blog!) produced by humans, with opinions…

Although I agree that Facebook is an imperfect tool for getting a balanced, representative sample!

This list, though, isn’t at all representative of “a huge variety of women from drastically differing feminist perspectives”, nor is it representative of “what has been most meaningful and influential to the feminist community as a whole” – why not? How could it have been?

I’m very disappointed that so many of the important Second Wave books ranked so low on this list. As someone who has been wildly offended by Jessica Valenti’s work, it really bothers me that three of her books beat out real feminists like Betty Friedan, Eve Ensler, and Simone de Beauvoir.

This is a surprisingly comprehensive list, covering both second and third wave feminism extensively (also first a bit with Virginia Woolf) as well as literature in the LGBTQ category.

I think it is interesting that not all books that made the list I would have put into the category of “feminist literature”, but could be read that way. Nickel and Dimed, for instance.

Some glaring omissions:

inclusion of more trans*femme feminist literature

inclusion of intersex feminist literature (Emi Koyama comes to mind)

and books on the intersections of feminism /or woman/personhood and disability.

Also, I was surprised to find books on the list that included Native American women, but where are the books discussing Asian women in feminism??

I suggest doing further outreach in order to get a more diverse readership. Goodreads and Facebook members do not wholly represent American feminist readers. Perhaps posting on blogs such as Feministing.com, Trans Feminisms or other similar places as well as posting on sites/stores that advertise/sell books on feminism, women and trans/gender topics.

One of the most important lessons I was taught when I studied feminist psychotherapy in the 1980s (a dual master’s in both psychology and women’s studies), was that unlike the patriarchal, authoritative voice which claims “objectivity,” feminists would reveal “subjectivity.” This means that we know what our biases are and that we reveal them whenver we roll out a theory, or in this case, a list of “The Best.”

I suggest that a list like this should compile information knowing the age and/or the wave of feminism from which the recommender hails. There are differences–important ones. As a second-waver, I think one of the fatal flaws of women’s movement today is that feminists are stupidly invisible-izing our herstory, which is a grand one of groundbreaking critique and making patriarchy visible. I’ve seen “millenials” publish with no idea that they’re standing on the shoulders of second-wavers who pushed against an entrenched and punishing establishment in order to publish and to get their ideas taken seriously. We can’t afford to be ahistorical–see Gerda Lerner’s “The Creation of Feminist Consciousness,” (when Lerner set out to write her book on feminist consciousness she realized she first had to write “The Creation of Patriarchy.” Her publisher had to wait ten years for her book on consciousness while she broke ground on research into patriarchy. This is a very interesting insight into how we build herstory).

We need cross-pollination of ideas, as well as all feminists stepping back to understand the evolution of women’s movement, where we succeeded, where we failed, and how we need to organize for the 21st century. Although much has changed for younger generations who didn’t face the blatant discrimination and misogyny I grew up with in the 50s, the phenomenon of patriarchy still exists. It expresses itself differently as the world changes, but it’s still operating.

Where each generation stands in relation to what they’ve read and how that reading has shaped their thinking really should be included in a list like this. Otherwise, we’re just borrowing a patriarchal device called hierarchy.

I dislike 10 best and 100 best lists on principle, especially ones that have been compiled in such a hodge podge way. I’d rather see a list in chronological order that showed the moments of illumination (Mary Wollstonecraft etc.) and then showed the development and expansion of feminism and interconnecting ideas. Not what are the best non-fiction books, but what are the books that awakened and influenced us all – whatever our current ages!

Also – I am uneasy with the term “real feminist” because I believe feminism has to be open to disagreement and to a continuum of beliefs that allow us to debate and explore ideas without simply rejecting them

Re “real feminist” I see what you’re saying, but anyone who espouses anti-Semitic, classist, factually incorrect, and inconsistent remarks can’t be a real feminist in my mind. See my post about this. http://starofdavida.blogspot.com/2011/02/top-reas…

I imagine the American-centric nature of this list is a result of the voting method. I would rather see a list that sought a better range of topics, and tried to include some excellent but overlooked books by or about women in the rest of the world.

I absolutely agree. I think my jaw almost literally hit the floor, seeing that. I’ve just finished writing a paper for the FWSA on “feminist” books that are highly exclusionist towards non-heterosexual and non-cisgender experiences, that “Cunt” is one of the biggest offenders. It’s also horribly white-normative and culturally appropriative, and I think the most misandrist book I’ve come across. That’s before you even start on Muscio’s promotion of vigilante justice and dangerous DIY herbal abortion…

@Yasti “How about “Delusions of Gender” by Cordelia Fine?”

Again — YES! This book is far too little-known. I recommend it to just about every feminist I meet. It may be pop-science, but it’s more overtly feminist than many titles here.

Cunt was really important to a lot of people. I for one was happy to see it so high up on the list, despite any faults. If anything I think the book is rather honest about there being shortcomings based an authors lived experience. Feminism is so great because we are constantly moving and reassessing, Cunt doesn’t have to be where we end up, only a place to start- which it was for many people.

The Chalice and the Blade is a book of wishful thinking and is more properly classed as fiction. I am surprised that Elaine Morgan’s The Descent of Woman is not here as it represents real science, evolution and anthropology. I would have placed Kate Millet’s Sexual politics higher considering its influence on feminism in the 1970’s. I would also have given a place to Shere Hite’s The Hite Report. Even with poor methodology Hite’s book, contemporaneous with Sexual Politics cause a dramatic shift in thinking.

I was utterly dismayed that none of Andrea Dworkin’s books were included in the top 100 feminist list of all time. Please see this blog for some of the reasons why it is unfair not to recognize her. http://www.feminisms.org/blog/

I was going to say the brilliant Shere Hite’s reports,especially The Hite Report On The Family:Growing Up Under The Patriarchy where over 1,000 girls and women and over 3,000 boys and men worldwide but mostly from the US answered anonymous surveys about what their experience growing up female and male in a very sexist,gender divided,gender stereotyped,male dominated family and society and how they are extremely conditioned into “feminine” and “masculine”. And she has a lot of defenses and explainations of how thorough and good her methodology was by quite a few social scientists! I once spoke to a psychologist 15 years ago at The American Psychological Association,and she said even though some have criticized her methodology,we know that her conclusions are the reality and make sense!

And certainly brilliant feminist psychologist Phyllis Chesler’s important works,Women And Madness,About Men and Patriarchy:Notes Of An Expert Witness should be on this list.

Also,why aren’t any great male pro-feminist writers on this list,Dr.Michael Kimmel’s works on the social constructions of “masculinity” and “femininity” like Manhood In America A Cultural Historty,Men’s lives, etc and especially his great book,which he updated,The Gendered Society. And John Stoltenberg’s brilliant important books especially his highly critically acclaimed,Refusing To Be A Man:Essays On Sex And Justice which consists of brillisnt powerful speaches he made from the late 1970’s until the late 1980’s.

And Jackson’s Kastz’s great The Macho Paradox:How Some Men Hurt Women And How All Men Can Help,and Robert Jensen’s Getting Off:Pornography And The End Of Masculinity.

I just noticed I made a few typing mistakes! I meant Jackson Katz. I also forgot to mention John Stoltenberg’s very good,The End Of Manhood:A Book For Men Of Concsience which is now unfortunately out of print. But what also about the brilliant great Dr.Diana Russell’s important works on harms of pornography? Like Pornography:The Evidence Of Harm where she published 100’s of violent woman-hating pictures of hardcore pornography but including cartoons from Playboy,Penthouse and Hustler blatently demonstrating the extreme hatred of women,cruelty and violence in them. And her anthology of feminist writings,What Makes Violence Sexy:Feminists Views On Pornography,and Dangerous Relationships Pornography,Misogyny,And Rape.

In the Fall of 1991 my aunt bought me an excellent not well known enough book,The Sisterhood:The True Story Of The Women Who Changed The World by Marcia Cohen which is a great detailed history of the feminist movement especially about Gloria Steinem,Betty Friedan,Kate Millet and Germane Gree and many others. On Goodreads they have your list and I’m really glad to see that the brilliant great Catherine Mackinnon’s excellent Feminism Unmodified is the list,as well as Andrea Dworkin’s Pornography Men Possessing Women,but they should be much higher(so Andrea’s other important works!) and so should the great brilliant Gloria Steniem’s works especially Outrageous Acts And Everyday Rebellions which I read when it came out when I was only 18 and a half and it realy woke me up!

Also I’m very surprised that none of the brilliant influential feminist Germaine Greer’s important books aren’t on here,like The Female Eunuch and her other books like The Whole Woman which is said to be a sequel to it.

I just read the description of Jane Sexes It Up on Powell’s.com,and it’s pro-pornography and it asks if it’s acceptable to be the submissive in an S&M relationship. It’s really incomprehensible how Ms. a feminist magazine that was co-founded by Gloria Steimem,who has always spoken out on the harms of typical sexist,woman-hating pornography that sexualizes male dominance,female submission,hatred of women,and men’s violence towards women and she’s also said these things against S&M even when the man is in the “female” role playing the sex object and victim!,can list any books that endorse,legitimize and promote these *sexist* *woman-hating* *anti-feminist* books!

Also, I have to add that you have a few books about transexuals,and as Gloria Steinem(and many other true radical feminists like Dr.Janice Raymond,Mary Daly,Robin Morgon,Germain Greer) so rightfully pointed out in her excellent article Transexualism from Ms.Magazine February 1977 which is included in her great important book,Outrageous Acts And Everyday Rebellions,(that should be much higher on this list!) transexuals (with the exception of Kate Bornstein ,whose book,Gender Outlaw you have on your list) both re-inforce and reflect common sexist socially constructed gender roles,gender stereotypes and myths! Kate Bornstein actually debunks them!

Are you kidding me? No Mary Daly? No Andrea Dworkin? No Janice Raymond? No Sonia Johnson? No Sheila Jeffreys? This is erasure of radical feminism. You don’t do a good job of presenting the diversity of views within the feminist movement.